October 24, 1878. ] 
JGURNAL OF HORTICULTURE AND COTTAGE GARDENER. 
323 
than eyer was offered at the shows of this or any other society— 
viz., the best of the breed, £100; the Gibbs prize, £105; the 
Elkington prize, £105 ; the President’s prize, £25. The Elkington 
trophy is a handsome cup, which has to be won twice successively 
or any three years by the same exhibitor; but all the other prizes 
are given outright. The different breeds do not, as is the case at 
many other shows, compete against each other except for the 
special prizes, and this is an arrangement of which exhibitors 
approve. Exhibitors, moreover, are not required to become 
members of the Society in order to compete, but are only charged 
a moderate entrance fee on each entry. In regard to sheep, it is 
possible for the best pen to win as much as £75, and, here also in 
competition the various breeds are kept distinct. Bingley Hall 
Christmas Exhibition has now become the recognised mart with 
preeders for young store pigs of all breeds, as the exhibits of the 
several owners in the classes for fat pigs show what the sort can 
do, and we are informed that from two to three hundred breeding 
pigs from three to six months old regularly change hands on 
these occasions. The poultry schedule is on the same liberal 
scale which has characterised it for thirty years. As fast as new 
breeds come up and prove by their merit or numbers that they 
are worthy of recognition, new classes are added, but rarely are 
any struck out. Itis found that from 2000 to 2500 pens are as 
many as can fairly be accommodated, and the entrance fee has, in 
consequence, been raised from time to time to keep the depart- 
ment within reasonable bounds. Mr. John B. Lythall is still the 
Secretary, from whom every information may be obtained. 
VARIETIES. 
WE are frequently being asked questions about Pekin or 
Cochin Bantams, &c., where to procure them. Our general answer 
is that they are hardly procurable for money, unless the purchaser 
js prepared to claim the one or two pairs occasionally shown at 
their catalogue price of £100 or more. About two years ago we 
heard from an enthusiastic fancier that he had an agent with 
exceptional opportunities and great knowledge of China scouring 
the country for them. We have lately heard that he has entirely 
failed to procure any, and believe them no longer to exist in the 
country. Our advice, in consequence, to the one or two fortunate 
possessors of them, is to cross them with Nankins and back again 
with the original stock before the race in this country dies out 
entirely. : 
—— Mussrs. Surtons’ Reyal Berkshire Root Show will take 
place in the new range of warehouses at Reading on the 23rd 
prox. Special prizes are offered for sewage-grown roots, which 
will make the other classes more open. The new feature of the 
Show is the grand prize, a gold cup value £20, for the best three 
dozen roots of Suttons’ improved varieties of mangold, which it is 
expected will bring together such a collection of roots the like of 
which has never been seen. 
—— AN Edinburgh correspondent informs us that the long 
term of dry mild weather is proving valuable for lifting the 
Potato crop. The farmers are very busy among them, and a few 
days more will make all safe. ,The crop is a very fine one both 
in quantity and quality, with less disease than has been seen for 
many years, consequently prices are very moderate. 
THE STEWARTON versus THE LARGE SKEP 
SYSTEM. 
« SrRoNG men, strong horses, and strong stocks of bees recom- 
mend themselves,” writes Mr. Pettigrew, and we add, In exact 
proportion as their respective strength is wisely applied. 
The Stewarton colony is peopled with two prime swarms, the 
big straw skep with one, consequently the former has double 
the strength at the start to recommend it; but what about the 
ication ? z i 
Bese peniacew teaches as his system the avoidance of all hives 
-of wood, particularly bar-framers, supers, and super honey, 
Ttalian bees, artificial comb foundation, the extractor—in short, 
everything that sayours of improvement by such appliances, and 
‘generally to revert back to the crudest of all systems—the straw 
skep one, and emphasises his partiality therefor by insisting on an 
enlarged edition being adopted everywhere, peopled with the old 
‘black bees “ bred in-and-in for ages!" — 
The big skep, 18 or 20 inches by 12, is to be peopled as I have 
‘said with a single prime swarm, the combs of which are to be 
yendered fixtures by five or six cross sticks having previously 
been run through it. Towards the end of the season the bees are 
to be expelled by driving, the hive’s contents converted into run 
hhoney, two or three lots of such driven bees to be united in an 
empty hive and fed on sugar syrup as a stock for the ensuing 
season. Such is your correspondent’s system, and as he has pro- 
mised to point out the “faulty features” of the Stewarton prior 
to haying mastered its first principles, | may be excused describing 
for the benefit of the general reader a few of the faulty features 
of the big skep as compared with the working of the Stewarton 
system. 
First as to size. In vast heath districts and favourable seasons 
the size of the common skep might be beneficially increased ; but, 
unfortunately, all districts are not alike nor seasons good, hence 
a fixed huge size for a]l is a mistake. In poor districts, or in the 
cold early spring months when the population is reduced to the 
minimum, they cut as awkward a figure as does the little Pat in 
his father’s breeches, although we cannot withhold wishing good 
luck to both to grow to fill them. The Stewarton, on the other 
hand, is built in sections, is a small hive in spring; the precious 
heat is much more economically raised and better concentrated, 
and breeding in consequence goes on more rapidly, space being 
afforded proportionately to the season, district, or wants of each 
particular colony for either breeding or storing, and from every 
comb being moveable stocks can readily be strengthened by inter- 
change of brood or store, and the expense of autumnal feeding is 
in a great measure saved. 
The second faulty feature of the-straw skep system we will 
look at is the mixed and impure nature of its pressed or run 
contents. Such honey is composed of a mixture of, among others, 
first the surplus sugar syrup of the previous spring and autumn 
feeding, the gleanings of the fruit blossoms, the sycamore tree, 
the bean field, the pure nectar of the white clover, the greenish- 
tinted lime, the yellow bindweed, and the dark exudation of the 
purple heather, all crushed up together into one grand blend, 
piquantly flavoured with the varied and acrid pollens of many a 
flower and plant; bad enough the idea, even though we exempt 
the white grubs of the brood cells so frequently seen floating in 
the precious mess. What would be thought of the gardener who 
would send the best fruits of the season served up on his master’s 
table crushed in this hotch-potch style, or the sugar refiner who 
would send to market his “low yellows” and purest “ crystals ” 
jumbled together? The skepist does it. On the other hand the 
shallow supers of the Stewarton hive afford facilities for the 
combined large body of bees to store rapidly and distinct the 
various honeys, at the same time ensuring a pure sample and fine 
finish. In our district, for instance, in keeping with the fayour- 
able weather, while the staples are in bloom the first or lowest 
super has generally a greyish tint from the bean, then follow two 
or three finest pure white clover, our main staple, with one or two 
from the limes to succeed, the uncompleted usually being part 
bindweed and heather honey, the last only available after a long 
flight in fine settled weather, all without a speck of pollen, the 
collectors of which (the queen and nurses) are kept shut within 
the breeding department by the central slides of the upper breed- 
ing box being securely closed, the honey-gatherers congregatine 
on the end honeycombs, only admitted to the supers through 
these outer slides overhead being alone drawn. While disparaging 
super comb Mr. Pettigrew overlooks the fact that in so doing he 
depreciates the source from whence the purest and finest run 
honey can be drawn. The magnificent samples exhibited at the 
Caledonian Apiarian and Entomological Society’s shows at 
Dumfries and Glasgow this last season were so close that a very 
few motes in a highly flavoured glass were sufficient to cast it, 
the Judges thereby teaching a useful lesson to the cottager of 
scrupulous cleanliness for the time to come, and on inquiring of 
the successful competitors from whence they drew their supply 
was answered “Super, of course.” 
The third and last faulty feature of the skep system to which 
for the present I shall allude is the destruction of the maturing 
autumnal brood, the very life blood of the stock, which is un 
avoidable where bees are driven from fixed combs sufficiently 
early in autumn to admit of their fabricating others in an empty 
skep before severe weather sets in, except they be placed in 
frames so that they can be kept constantly covered by the workers 
till hatched. Mr. Pettigrew does not advocate the brimstone pit, 
but teaches in his book how bees can be so destroyed, terms those 
who save and think it inhuman to destroy our little favourites 
“sentimentalists,” and adds, page 178, “There is nothing in the 
destruction of the lives of bees more cruel or inhuman than there 
is in the destruction of the lives of cattle, sheep, or fowls.” Is 
this sound reasoning? Are thecases atallanalogous? We cannot 
consume the flesh of any of these creatures without first depriving 
them of life. It is not so with the bee. We framists can cut to 
the last cell, or, better still, with the extractor drain to the last 
drop of honey it contains, without breaking an egg, hurting the 
weakest laryze, or even damaging a cell wall. To take the useful 
lives of even the tiniest creatures unnecessarily we hold to be 
nothing less than wanton cruelty. 
I have had already occasion to advert io the manifest unfairness 
on the part of Mr. Pettigrew drawing comparisons of harvest 
results between different districts, and of pitting against net 
weight pure super honey and gross weight of big straw breeding 
skeps, and now regret to find statements still more reprehensible. 
At page 216 of this Journal he says: In 1868 our Renfrewshire 
friend had glorious results in supers from a Stewarton hive. The 
results the same year from a straw hive in an adjoining county 
(Lanark) were equally g00d—yiz., 328 Ibs. gross.” On referring to 
page 78 of Mr. Pettigrew’s “Handy Book” I find the haryest 
alluded to was there represented as reaped’in 1864, or four years 
previously to mine, and the gross weight of 328 Ibs. as not of 
